Thread by @wmnjoya

We have a very bad education system. And a terrible and stupid government. I've always known, but every time I have to explain complex systems, I'm reminded of it again. Which is always.

The world and reality are complex. Every adult should have be able to understand the multiple factors or narratives behind every situation. But instead, Kenyans are beaten and ridiculed throughout their school life to see every issue as have a single source and single solution.

This institutional stupidity of Kenya is what @chiefnyamweya talks about in this article. Kenyans are trained to limit their minds to puzzles and to block themselves from unveiling mysteries. Hence the stupid question "what's your solution?" theelephant.info/ideas/2019/12/…

We cannot have good healthcare or good education among a stupidized population. Because medicine and education are not about just technical ability. They are also about the soul. That's why several revolutionaries are doctors. Even Jesus was a healer and teacher.

But @MOH_Kenya and @EduMinKenya want teachers and doctors who are stupid and uncaring but technically good. They want to control, abuse and belittle us professionals, then leave quality healthcare and education to be determined by auditors, MBAs and customer care thru regulation.

But to understand why the government behaves like wanyapara for foreign capital, and treat us professionals like slaves in a plantation, one has to understand how slavery works. But we Kenyans don't do history because it cant build bridges, Ruto said. hbr.org/2013/09/planta…

GoK doesn't want good healthcare or education for us, because we don't exist. Only tourists and investors exist. Hence CBC. CBC is not for Kenyan kids, as parents like to flatter themselves. It was to cheapen the curriculum for foreign investors to invest in education business.

Foreign investors need a curriculum that doesn't require trained teachers or rich content. The UK gave aid to Kenya in 2010 on condition that we would allow Bridge Academies to expand that model of education. It needs at least 500k kids for the business model to bring a profit.

So "parental involvement'" is a lie. Parents were cheated that the school valued their input, when actually, what GoK was telling them was that they have to do more teaching, and pay more for their kids. But, again, our tunnel vision. Parents could not get what I was explaining.

To get why parental involvement is a lie, parents have to understand multiple ideas:
1. Education as public good
2. Ubuntu, and the village raises the child
3. The Western and racist foundations of the nuclear family
4. The stealth of privatization

But because Kenyans are trained to understand a single story, the only thing they wanted was someni vijana...utapata kazi nzuri sana. Even when we tried t explain that employment was not a function of education, parents told us shadapp, let the babies do CBC so they can get jobs.

Even now when parents complain about principals exploiting them, they haven't learned. They are still in the someni vijana story. So they will complain, but they will pay. We will never uproot this exploitation until we accept a goal of education different from getting jobs.

And back to stupidity. We are made stupid by our education. Even when we try to defy the system, bots will come here to bully us about solutions, the media will dumb as down, and report politician buffoons and never complex stories.

There's very little incentive to not be stupid

So I really don't sympathize with complaints about principals. The principals are part of a corrupt network. Thy are not isolated rotten fruits. And since you feel that understanding the network is not your problem, or that it can somehow give your kids jobs, accept and pay up.

I can sympathize with the family in the village whose parents are not educated. But most of their kids don't make it anyway, and you celebrate their exclusion at the time of exam results. You even call their failures a sign of Matiang'i's efficiency.

So you here? I feel nothing.

I can only pity you as far as your miseducation and government sanctioned stupidity is not your fault, but that's it.